


The “out” of Dick

by chellerrific



Series: Rob and KF are boyfriends [2]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bromance, Chicken Whizees, Gen, Good thing his name isn't Bates, Hamlet is less important than batarangs, ~Master Dick~
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-27
Updated: 2012-03-27
Packaged: 2017-11-02 14:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/370044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellerrific/pseuds/chellerrific
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there’s one thing Bruce Wayne has taught Dick, it’s to never be surprised by anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The “out” of Dick

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daasvedanya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daasvedanya/gifts).



> A sequel of sorts to [this fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/317852). I wasn’t originally planning on writing one, then a few weeks ago I had the image for this conversation and it became The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave. Then it was Anya’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DOLL!

Dick Grayson was doodling designs for a hypothetical new kind of fléchette based on one of Roy’s trick arrows, his English homework idling half-finished in another window on his computer desktop. Bruce Wayne was serious about schoolwork—Bruce Wayne was serious about _everything_ —but Dick figured that if it meant developing something that could potentially help keep the peace of the known universe, Hamlet could wait a little bit longer. He knew how it ended anyway.

The real trick with the gadgets was in making them efficient while still keeping the signature bat-style, which wasn’t actually a necessity but Dick knew he would feel weird without it. Sure, he was officially striking out as Robin and establishing his own identity independent of Batman, but some things, you just didn’t mess with. Even though he loved his work with the team and looked forward eagerly to the day he became the leader on a real and permanent basis, he was still one half of the Dynamic Duo, and for now, he liked things that way.

The phone rang, but Dick ignored it. It was probably one of Bruce’s business associates, calling about this or that, and as much of an interest as Dick did take in WayneTech, he was in the middle of something else for the moment. If he was really interested, he could check on it later.

He was startled out of his thoughts, though, when he heard Alfred call for him. “Master Dick! Telephone! It’s a schoolmate!”

A schoolmate? Dick glanced at his cell phone sitting silently nearby, full signal and no missed calls registered. Something was a bit off about this. He rolled his chair back and reached over to grab his seldom-used land line, already keying in the code to check the log Bruce kept that traced all incoming and outgoing calls to the Manor. (Bruce had eyes and ears everywhere, and he liked it that way. Dick, not so much, but over the years he’d learned to get around most of them.)

“Got it!” Dick called to Alfred, then waited briefly for the telltale click of the other line hanging up before speaking into the receiver. “Dick speaking.”

“Hey, Dickie, I need a little help with the physics homework and thought you could lend a hand.”

Dick barely flinched at the sound of the voice on the other end. “I’m not taking physics this year,” he decided to answer.

“Eh, that’s okay; I just remembered I can run circles around you in physics. Oh, and in everything else, both figuratively and literally.” Wally was, as usual, eating as he talked—chips, probably, from the sound of it—but the smugness in his voice came through loud and clear.

He obviously expected Dick to be pretty chalant, but he was disappointed in that respect. Instead Dick couched the phone between his shoulder and his ear so he could have both hands free for his computer; he needed to erase all traces of this call from the system, and the sooner the better, so he started on that while waiting quietly for Wally to continue.

Wally never could stand silence for long. “So, _Dick_ ,” he said after only a brief pause, hitting the name like a metal bat connecting with a baseball. Dick was genuinely unsure about how insulted he was meant to be. “Thanks for that, Mom and Dad, right?”

Dick flinched, but was careful to keep it out of his voice. “It’s short for Richard, _Wallace_.”

Wally shrugged that off easily, though. Dick knew he would by this point. “You know, I gotta admit, I’m a little bummed. You haven’t even asked me how I figured it out.”

“Actually, Wally, the only question I have for you is why you didn’t figure it out sooner.”

“Oh, no, Dickie-boy, you’re not pulling that on me. This round goes to one Wally West.”

“I’m not pulling anything; I meant that seriously. Wally, you gave yourself superpowers by replicating a complex science experiment with your _chemistry set_ in your _house_. You coached me on how to make an EMP generator using spare parts in a matter of minutes, even if you did neglect to close the circuit—”

“Hey, no, bro, that was all on you.”

“—and you honestly expect me to believe you never had to ability to figure out my identity before today?”

“Well, it’s been a couple of days since I figured it out; I waited so I could think of some good lines… Oh oh oh! Wait! Mathletes! I had a whole bit worked out about that! Say something about how this ‘doesn’t add up.’”

“Sorry, dude, not buying it. You could have figured it out at any time.”

“You could have told me at any time,” Wally said.

Dick blinked. “Batman would have killed both of us.”

“You say that like he won’t kill us now that I’ve figured it out.”

“No, he totally will, but at least in this case I can go to my grave knowing it was your fault,” Dick explained. “That’s why you aren’t ever going to mention this out loud. Bruce doesn’t have to know if you can keep your yap shut. Tall order, I know.”

“Hey, come on, you can trust me. I never spill secrets. Well, unless there’s a naked girl involved. Or a taco dog. Or…”

“Right. Awesome.”

“Sooo. Bruce Wayne is Batman. That explains everything. Well, not _everything_ , but all the Batman things and the Bruce Wayne things, anyway.”

“Shut up, seriously!” Dick said, trying not to flail too much.

“It seems so obvious in hindsight. I should have figured it out s—” Wally cut himself off, realizing what he’d just said.

Dick couldn’t suppress a small grin of triumph. Let Wally open his mouth for long enough and his foot would always end up in it. “Which raises the question,” Dick said, turning thoughtful. “What changed?”

“What?”

“What changed that made you decide now was the time to figure it out? Why now and not sooner? Or later? Or never?”

“I don’t know,” Wally said. “Something just clicked that didn’t before.”

“Mmhmm.”

“I mean it.” But then Wally fell silent again. He was quiet for so long Dick would have thought he’d fallen asleep, except Wally snored like a freight train. He was just about to make sure the line hadn’t gone dead when finally he got his answer.

“I guess… it’s because of the team.”

“The team? Our team?”

“Yeah. Things are different now. And I guess… I wasn’t satisfied with letting sleeping birdies lie anymore. _Not_ that I was ever really ‘satisfied’ with it before.”

“But your fear of Batman outweighed your curiosity until now? Yeah, he has that effect on people.”

“Hey, no, dude, I am _so_ not _afraid_ of him… he just… sometimes gives me the feeling that he genuinely could kill me with only a look and also this one time I had a nightmare where he could read all my thoughts so I wasn’t even safe inside my own head and I accidentally had this fantasy about Catwoman—”

“Dude, TMI, emphasis on the W.”

“Right, like you haven’t gone there.”

Dick cringed. Not that Selina wasn’t gorgeous, but— “No. Just no.”

The loud crunching on the other end of the line told him Wally had resumed his snacking, which Dick took to mean the pensive moment was truly over. “Dude. We should totally hang out.”

“We hang out all the time.”

“I mean like… you know what I mean.”

Dick considered giving him a hard time, but he did know what he meant, and he wanted that too. “Yeah. Unless we get a call from Mount Justice, tomorrow night’s good for me. Not here though.”

“Aw, no sleepovers at the Batcave?”

“No,” Dick said shortly. He had to admit to himself that Bruce would find out sooner or later that Wally was officially In On The Secret—he was Bruce Wayne, after all, and there was simply no keeping anything from him for very long. That didn’t mean Dick was going to rub it in his face though. Plus Alfred would have kittens, and as hilarious as that would be, the situation was still just a touch too delicate.

“Fine, fine. Ooh! I would kill for a chicken whizee.”

“Okay. We’ll meet there at six tomorrow, then.”

“What? No, I meant, right now. All though I’ll probably want another one tomorrow, so that’s cool with me. Hey, out of curiosity, do you know, like, _everybody’s_ secret identity?”

“Pretty much. It pays being a genius hacker with easy access to the most advanced information network on the planet.”

“Dude! I have so many questions for you.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what Wonder Woman looks like naked.”

“Dammit. I mean that’s not—whatever. Okay, I seriously gotta bolt, I’m about to starve. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Later, KF.”

“Bye bye, Dickie. Oh wait! There’s one thing I gotta ask before I go, about—”

But Dick was already hanging up. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly what, or rather _whom_ Wally was going to ask about, and the non-answers Dick was going to give could wait one more day.


End file.
